Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to relax and recharge when
Speaker 1: you don't get a full Friday evening to Monday morning.
Speaker 1: Weekend weekends are great, but for various reasons, people can
Speaker 1: wind up with short ones. Maybe you've got a side hustle,
Speaker 1: or you're taking weekend classes, Maybe your days off just
Speaker 1: don't happen consecutively, or maybe your job is going through
Speaker 1: a particularly busy season. That was the case for Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast listener named Robin. Robin wrote in that I co
Speaker 1: own a small business with my brother that is a
Speaker 1: motorcycle dealership, and therefore we trade six days per week. However,
Speaker 1: Robin says sometimes there are exceptions and other bits and
Speaker 1: pieces get in the way of our five day week. Events.
Speaker 1: People on leave extremely busy periods. We are currently entering
Speaker 1: our busiest period of the year, which is great because
Speaker 1: we have to take advantage of this period to make money.
Speaker 1: But I'll be working four to five weeks in a
Speaker 1: row where I need to do a six day week.
Speaker 1: I love my job, but that doesn't stop me needing
Speaker 1: downtime and time away. What strategies do you suggest I
Speaker 1: can use to make myself feel like I've actually had
Speaker 1: a break from work. I hate that I feel like
Speaker 1: I blink and my weekend four pm Saturday a m
Speaker 1: Monday is gone. We all hate this feeling of a
Speaker 1: weekend gone too quickly. So here are my tips for
Speaker 1: Robin and anyone else who has a six day work week. First,
Speaker 1: if you have limited leisure time, then your leisure time
Speaker 1: is too precious to be totally leisurely about leisure. That
Speaker 1: means it's important to be intentional about your time. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you have to schedule every minute. Robin
Speaker 1: deals without enough at work, and probably you do too.
Speaker 1: Go into your thirty nine hours off for however long
Speaker 1: it is, with say three ideas of things that would
Speaker 1: add to your energy levels. Maybe one could happen that
Speaker 1: first evening, one the next day, and one the next evening.
Speaker 1: Nothing crazy, but something to make the time feel rich
Speaker 1: and full. We did an episode a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: about planning a great long weekend. During that episode, I
Speaker 1: suggested doing something physical, something social, and something spiritual in
Speaker 1: order to have a good weekend. Well, you might not
Speaker 1: hit all of those in a thirty nine hour weekend,
Speaker 1: you could certainly try. I think it's also good to
Speaker 1: have an idea of what you'll do during downtime so
Speaker 1: you don't mindlessly reconnect with the office. If you've only
Speaker 1: got one day off, you really don't need to plug
Speaker 1: in during this time. A good book might be a
Speaker 1: better idea. And finally, just as with any other weekend,
Speaker 1: you want to compress the chores and errands. There's always
Speaker 1: stuff you have to do, but if you've only got
Speaker 1: one day off, you don't want to spend all of
Speaker 1: it battling mall traffic. So set a small window. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen during this time, it probably wasn't that important.
Speaker 1: So I gave these suggestions to Robin, and shortly after
Speaker 1: that got a note back. Here's what Robin reported. I
Speaker 1: have to say I had a great weekend. I took
Speaker 1: your advice and tried to plan my time carefully. I
Speaker 1: got home from work around four thirty pm Saturday. My
Speaker 1: partner was away until Sunday night, so I had the
Speaker 1: house to myself and decided to do some baking. This
Speaker 1: is my spiritual It uplifts my soul so Robin spent
Speaker 1: a lovely evening making pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup. Sunday
Speaker 1: morning featured some chores, in this case getting the car washed.
Speaker 1: I had needed to do this for weeks, Robin reported,
Speaker 1: but reading a book while waiting improved the experience immensely. Continuing,
Speaker 1: I then picked up my pushbike and headed to my
Speaker 1: friend's house for an hour bike ride. That's the physical part,
Speaker 1: and felt so good afterwards. Robin and the friend then
Speaker 1: had breakfast at a cafe together, checking the social box
Speaker 1: as well. So literally before noon on Sunday, Robin had
Speaker 1: already done something spiritual, something physical, and something social. There
Speaker 1: were a few extended family obligations in the afternoon, but
Speaker 1: then Robin reports that I ducked home and picked up
Speaker 1: my partner to go to dinner he had been home
Speaker 1: a few hours earlier, and did a quick tidy of
Speaker 1: the house when with another set of friends, and then
Speaker 1: we were home by eight thirty to get a good
Speaker 1: night's sleep. So there are plenty of people with three
Speaker 1: day weekends who don't manage this much fun, And it
Speaker 1: all happened because Robin was intentional. Even if there wasn't
Speaker 1: that much time. If you have short weekends, what do
Speaker 1: you do to make the most of them? You can
Speaker 1: let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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